Japan’s whaling fleet has returned to base with the carcasses of 333 minke whales, in apparent violation of a ruling by the International Court of Justice.

Reuters quoted a statement by Japan’s Fisheries Agency that said 103 male and 230 female whales were caught during the fleet’s summer expedition to Antarctic waters. Ninety percent of the mature females were pregnant.

Did you know that Japanese whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission, with one little loophole left for scientific research? They’ve been abusing that loophole for years.

The court said the research program had generated only two peer-reviewed papers that together refer to nine whales.

‘In light of the fact that [Japan’s program] has been going on since 2005 and has involved the killing of about 3,600 minke whales, the scientific output to date appears limited,’ the court wrote in its judgment.

By a 12-4 vote, the court based in The Hague decided Japan must ‘revoke any extant authorization, permit or license granted in relation to’ its whaling program, ‘and refrain from granting any further permits’ related to it.

Thank you PZ for your careful word choice. You used the term “Japan’s whaling fleet” instead of the often used term “the Japanese”, as in “the Japanese are slaughtering whales”. They make it sound like all Japanese people are out on their boats killing whales. When in reality whaling and whale meat is not very popular in Japan. I am part Japanese and I’ve lived in Japan. My experience, opinion poles, and low sales suggest that support for whaling is not high. Again, thank you.

Reuters quoted a statement by Japan’s Fisheries Agency that said 103 male and 230 female whales were caught during the fleet’s summer expedition to Antarctic waters. Ninety percent of the mature females were pregnant.

“The number of pregnant females is consistent with previous hunts, indicating that the breeding situation of minke whales in the Antarctic is healthy,” Reuters quoted the agency as saying.

If the International Whaling Commission would care to issue letters of marque, I’m sure there are people who would be willing to take them up on the offer. Good planning and funding should enable success to be achieved non-violently, with the sale of the captured vessels providing a return for the privateers and their backers.

Opposition to Japan’s whaling program isn’t based on racisim. That’s what they’ve been yelling, because they think if they say it enough times it will become true. Opposition to Japan’s program comes from the same reasoning that opposes Norway and Iceland’s programs, but is also a reaction to how they’ve handled the situation in a way that makes them seen dishonest. First by exaggering the scientific importance of their whaling program, and then by promising to obey the WWC’s ruling but blatantly defying it. The truth is, the government is trying to preserve whaling because the economies of those small coastal communities are based on whaling, and without it and the government subsidies that go with it, those towns, like many small rural towns in Japan, will go broke.

There is opposition to whaling in Japan, but it isn’t very strong because the government has succeeded in painting this conflict as protecting culture against Western Imperialism, completely ignoring that 1) whale meat is piling up in storage; 2) not many people eat it these days; 3) the cruelty of the practice; 4) scientific consensus that whales are not (as is claimed) harming the fishing industry.

Most people have bought into the government’s party line without much thought, because opposing viewpoints are few, and I hate to say it, but most people in the world just aren’t critical thinkers. Especially in a country where the government regularly runs riot over the press as has increased during the Abe ministry.

FYI I live in Tokyo and regularly watch TV and read newspapers, as well as discussing the issue with people. I can assure you the general consensus is that other countries are just picking on poor, put upon Japan.

I trust your assessment of the situation in Japan, and I didn’t mean to imply that it was only racism. Their insistence that it’s for science is infuriating, but why don’t we hear the same level of outrage directed at Norway and Iceland? Or the Faroe Islands? Truly wondering, not arguing for the racism claim.

trophic cascade well I learned a new word today.
That sounds like the interaction that takes place with wolfs in Yellowstone which is the first place I heard about it but have since heard of related phenomena with the Grizzlies , salmon and the forest and the relationship of land predators in Africa and the herds and the plains they live on.
So the whales have a similar effect of increase it is as if they were farming the sea as there pasture. We should defiantly keep killing them and not eating them (throwing the carcasses away after we have rendered then first) because of jobs in an over fished sea and diminishing catch, while we lie about what we are doing and why! right, !
uncle frogy